MaeLyn's Musings

I now officially have two adult children!  John has about 5 months left of his mission. While I understand that he was disappointed to not be able to return to Brazil, and he still has some difficult days (and weeks), I think he has really appreciated the opportunity to continue to serve. His schedule now includes working on the grounds of the Fort Collins temple, helping out in the Denver North Mission office, and fielding help requests on the gospel library app for Global Services. In his free time, John plays the piano and is learning to play the sax. He also reads a lot and spends a good amount of time on his computer. He explains what he is doing from time to time, but once he starts talking about compilers, the language gets more technical and he loses me. He also attends the young adult ward on Sundays and institute classes on Thursdays. After his mission he plans to return to Colorado School of Mines to continue pursuing his computer science degree. John being John. Peter...

Northglenn High School presented "Les Miserables" on March 1-3. It was absolutely amazing, especially for a high school production. John and Joshua both participated, growing out their hair to unprecedented lengths. (Pictures below were taken by Anton Mayer, and were copied from his  Facebook page ) Josh leads the chain gang.  John had the role of the bishop who changed Jean Valjean's life. John also had the misfortune of being run over by a loaded wagon John is just to the right of center, as one of the revolutionary leaders. Josh is on the far right, wearing a red scarf. Josh is the dead french soldier lying on the top of the barricade in this image. Josh liked to tell people that he played 2/3 of the French army. In another scene he played a French sniper who was shot, so he got to die twice. (Another actor played a French commander, the other 1/3 of the French army.) We bought a DVD of the musical so if anyone is in the area and want...

Wednesday night we attended a Court of Honor for John and Joshua. Joshua received his Salesmanship merit badge and advanced to Star rank. John received several merit badges, including Woodworking, Photography, Art, Forestry and Nature. The boys also received patches for the klondike campout they attended a few months ago. The patches were supposed to be a mad scientist's beaker, but from the back, they looked very banjo shaped.

A couple weeks ago, I received a phone call that John was going to receive a reward at the 8th grade awards ceremony. I attended the ceremony, and watched as teachers passed out certificates to students who had shown outstanding work in each area, math, science, leadership, creativity, etc. The ceremonies were nearing the end, and John had yet to receive anything. I started to wonder if they had changed their minds or if there had been a mistake. And then John's name was called. He received an award they called, "The Sir Isaac Newton Award for Scholarship". He had earned the highest over all GPA over the three years of middle school of all the 200 or so students in the 8th grade at his school. Wow! I am very proud of him and all his hard work.

Monday after Spring Break is a little bit hard when it comes to getting back into normal routines and getting up in the morning, especially when we're used to sleeping in a little later. This morning, I dragged Peter out of bed and sent him to the bathroom to get ready for school. I expected to have to knock on the door a few times to remind him that the clock is ticking as he has a tendency to get distracted. But surprisingly, he got dressed fairly quickly. When he was dressed he came out and said, "Mom, I have a haiku!" "What is it?" I asked. " General Conference  is right around the corner.  I can't wait to watch!" A little while later he told me, "and there's the other haiku, too." "Which one was that?" I asked. "The one about the first presidency!" "Oh?" "Thomas S. Monson Henry B Eyring and there's Dieter F. Uchtdorf." We had packed lunches and were just about read...

Just as Tuesday night was the cub scout pack meeting, where the cub scouts received their awards, Wednesday night was a Court of Honor, where our boy scout, John, received the awards that he has been working on for the last couple years. He received nine merit badges: Environmental Science, Chemistry, Electricity, Inventing, Mammal Study, Nuclear Science, Programming, Radio, and Space Exploration. (Does anyone else notice a theme?) He also received his Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class rank advancements. Congratulations, John!

I made the mistake of mentioning to someone about a week ago that our family really doesn't get sick very often. I guess the fates decided that it was time. On Tuesday, John wasn't feeling well. He had a sore throat, and possibly a fever. He lay around and read; I figured it would pass. By Wednesday, I think the sore throat was better, but he awoke with his eye crusted over with thick green gunk, which continued to ooze throughout the day. Yesterday (Thursday) his eye was still oozing gunk, and the area around his eye was sore from his attempts to clean the mucus. He couldn't open his eye all the way, and it kind of looked like his entire eye was sunken down on his face. As if that wasn't enough, by the evening, he was complaining about feeling a lot of pressure in his ear, and was so uncomfortable that he was almost in tears. Last night, Steven took him to the doctor. Sure enough, he has conjunctivitis (pink eye) as well as an ear infection. He came home with e...

Steven went to the scout camp Friday evening after work, and, among other things, the scouts there celebrated John's birthday that night. John got to blow out a candle stuck in a pinguino cupcake, and Steven brought him one gift to open there: a Python programming book.  They returned home Saturday morning, but we made John wait until that evening to open the rest of his gifts. He received Legos from Grandma Kathy, rulers from Peter, candy from Josh, a book from Hannah, and more books from Steven and me. (He should have enough reading material to last him for a few days now.) After the gifts were opened, we had angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries. It was delicious!

Today is John's 13th birthday, and he is still at scout camp. Here are some more of the pictures that his scout leader posted from camp: Service project Tuesday Outside the dining hall after lunch on Wednesday  Wednesday was a rainy day, both here and at camp: Panoramic shot of the camp site Digging trenches to drain the water in front of the tents John was being a goof at the lake party Thursday night. From this morning: John's scout leader said, "John is NOT at all excited for his 13th birthday! Even with his Grand Master Flash hat!"   At least he got one great picture of John!  

John is at scout camp this week. He left yesterday morning around 4:30am. He'll be back Saturday. Meanwhile, the house is just a little quieter. His bedroom is just a little emptier. Our house is just a little messier (because he isn't here to do his chores... and he's one of my kids who is actually good about doing them.) One of John's scout leaders has set up a Facebook group page where he has begun posting pictures of the boys there at camp. On the drive to camp They decorated their troop shirts themselves. Lunch time Do you notice anything strange about the expressions on John's face?

This past weekend was crazy busy. Here are some of the highlights! John with his teacher, Mr. Lee What could possibly be more fun than answering math questions? For me, several things come to mind, but John seems to enjoy it. Saturday morning, John attended the Colorado State MathCounts Competition, which was held at the Colorado School of Mines, about half an hour drive away from home. John was there from about 8:30am until about 2:00pm. He didn't finish in the top four, and so won't be going on to the national competition but he had a lot of fun and this was a great experience for him. While Steven drove John to and from the MathCounts competition, and did the grocery shopping, the rest of the kids and I cleaned the house, and Hannah baked and decorated a couple cakes for the evening activity. Girl's Camp is one of the most fun things that the young women in our ward look forward to every year, but it isn't cheap! Every couple years, the young women in our ...

Yesterday was a bit of an interesting day for John. As he was preparing to help pass the sacrament, he got a bloody nose, and ended up needing to let someone else take his place. It took a while before the bleeding stopped, but this is a common enough occurrence that he knew exactly what he needed to do to stop the bleeding. More importantly, after church yesterday John was set apart as president of his Deacon's Quorum. I have confidence that he will do a fantabulous job!

On Saturday, John participated in the North Metro Chapter MouthCounts competition. He came home with a trophy for tenth place, which means that he gets to go on to the state competition which will be held in three weeks, on March 15th. Great Job, John!

Saturday was a very busy day for me. We got up around 7am, got dressed, had breakfast, tossed some pork in the crock pot for dinner, and Steven, Hannah, Josh, Peter and I drove the five miles to the church to get there by 8:00. It was our family's turn to help clean the church building. I dropped the rest of the family off, then drove to the home of John's scout leader to pick John up from a scout campout in the backyard, dropped John off at a middle school in the area for a  Mathcounts Competition at 8:30, then returned to the church (about 15 mile round trip) to help with the cleaning. We finished around 9:30 and returned home, to do chores and straighten up our house. I even had time to play a game with Peter before a little after 11:00, when I returned to the school where John was, to watch the final round of the competition and the awards ceremony. Mathcounts is a series of competitions where middle school students are given math problems to solve in a limited period of...

John was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting this last Sunday (the 8th). He spoke about how prayer is a blessing in his life, and he did an awesome job!

Last night we went to a Court of Honor for the scouts in our ward. We started with a dinner of tacos and nachos, and then the awards were given out. A slide show of photos from scout camp was projected on a screen. John received five merit badges that he earned at scout camp and at a merit badge college a couple weeks ago. Two boys in the troop received their Eagle awards. This was special to Steven, because these are boys that he worked with when he was the scoutmaster, and even since he was released, he has continued to encourage them to complete their projects and achieve this goal. He was really happy to see them receive the Eagle award. One of the boys selected Steven as the recipient of a mentor pin. (Click here for some more information about the mentor pin.) There were cupcakes for dessert.

John passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday. It was an awesome feeling to have him pass me the sacrament trays. I am so pleased that he has lived worthily to be able to be a deacon, to hold the priesthood and be able to serve in this way. Way to go John! And they would have had no  children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.  But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who  knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy. ( 2 Nephi 2:23-25 ) I have no greater  joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. ( 3 John 1:4 )

John returned home from scout camp at 1:30 Saturday morning. (They decided to come home Friday night instead of Saturday morning, but by the time John woke up Saturday after the late night, it was about the same time he would have gotten home Saturday anyway.) He had a lot of fun there. Here are some of the highlights: John went to "the Crevasses" in Camp Deitler. The crevasses are huge rock things that have big gaps between them and some caves. John went through some of the gaps and climbed a large leaning rock. John made an electronic rectangle. It was made of a circuit board, two capacitors, four resistors, two LEDs, and two transistors. The LED lights blinked slowly when everything was put together and connected to a power source.  John participated in the "Polar Penguin" four times, which means that he got to jump in the lake right after breakfast, when the water was still cold.  He slept in a sleeping bag, inside a canvas tent that wasn't attached to...

Today is John's birthday. He isn't home today. He is at scout camp all this week - from way too early Monday morning until around noon on Saturday. But we are still thinking of him. I'm proud of my oldest boy. He is a very responsible young man. I never have to worry about whether or not he will do his chores. I never have to keep track of his homework - he just does it. I admire John's skill in origami, coming up with the intricate folds required to make almost any kind of animal. Visitors to our home are frequently asked what their favorite animal is, and before they leave, they are presented with a giraffe or a monkey or an elephant or whatever. John loves his LEGOs. From miniature pianos to multi-story tree houses for horses, or tall buildings with elevators, John is always creating something ingenious. When he isn't folding or building with LEGOs, John can usually be found curled up with a book. When we go to the library, he frequently checks out a do...

John says that at 11:00 tonight, he will be    11 years    11 months    11 days    11 hours and    11 minutes old. Today he and Steven returned home from 11 year-old scout camp. While he was there, he ate two grasshoppers live! He learned a song called "Three Blind Jellyfishes". He learned about knife safety, did lashing, went on a hike, built a monkey bridge and had a lot of fun. At the camp, each of the patrols was named for a Book of Mormon prophet. John was in the "Samuel" patrol, as in Samuel the Lamanite. Their patrol yell was, "Repent!" They did a skit at the campfire where Samuel was attacked by the evil Nephite horde and the evil Nephite minions, first with rocks and arrows, then with spears, then with automatic weapons, then with phasers set to 'kill', but Samuel avoided them all and eventually all the wicked Nephites were "smoten" and fell down. The moral of the story is "Listen to the prophet." Last...